“How Many Can I Have?” – Breeders Queue Up To Use Galiway

When Sunway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) wrapped up his two-year-old season with a win in the G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud, it was both a confirmation that his sire's early success was no fluke, and that his breeder has an uncanny knack at stallion-making.

In 2007, Guy Pariente took a gamble on a horse no one else wanted to stand at stud and built an entire farm around him. Within a few years, Kendargent was one of the most popular stallions in France. So when he came up with another unheralded horse a few years later in Galiway, people said lightning couldn't strike twice.

But after producing Sealiway (Fr)-a Group 1 winner at two and three, and now a popular stallion at stud–Galiway is back with a Classic prospect in his full-brother Sunway (Fr). The siblings are out of the Kendargent mare Kensea (Fr). Pariente, it would appear, is not only a stallion maker, but a stallion breeder as well.

The backstories of both Kendargent and Galiway are similar; Kendargent won two races, was second in the G3 Prix Paul de Moussac, and fourth in the G1 Prix Jean Prat. Galiway also won two races, was twice Group-placed, was fifth in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, and won a Listed race in his final start at three. There were undoubtedly more than a few eyes rolling when Pariente proclaimed his faith in each of them. Now they're not only working, they're working together.

Galiway was raced by Wertheimer & Frere, and was sidelined by a tendon problem at three. He was within 48 hours of being castrated in order to be brought back to the races as a four-year-old when Pariente stepped in with an offer to buy him and stand him at stud.

“He has the type of profile that Mr. Pariente really likes,” said Sally Ann Grassick, who serves as an international representative for Haras de Colleville. “He doesn't necessarily look for Group winners. He likes a horse with a good pedigree, and his being by Galileo was a real attraction. But he likes horses that have had consistent racing careers, and they don't always have had to have performed at the highest level, but just to have had those positive, promising performances at a certain level. It's the profile that Kendargent had as well. He's not going after those Group 1 horses that every other stallion man might be looking for. But Galiway was on Mr. Pariente's radar from pretty early on in his career.”

Guy Pariente has become a stallion kingmaker | Courtesy Haras de Colleville

Galiway retired to stud in 2016 for an initial fee of €3,000, but after siring eight black-type winners-four at the graded level-his star has risen steadily since. Not that there weren't early doubters.

Grassick said that they did hear the `lightning doesn't strike twice' line early on. “Everybody said that Kendargent was a fluke, was lucky. He was a horse that probably should never have been a stallion. Ninety-nine percent of the farms wouldn't have stood him as a stallion. And only through Mr. Pariente's support of him did he end up being as successful as he has been. He kept buying and sending him mares. And Galiway has been similar. In the early days, Mr. Pariente had these Kendargent mares. He needed a cross that would work with them. And that's why Galiway worked so well. But you can say that he's lucky and you can say that he has the Midas touch and all of those things, but Galiway is the proof. He's come out with another good stallion. He's been so popular and has surpassed what we achieved with Kendargent, which was already unbelievable. But now to have a stallion like Galiway standing here, and the breeders that are supporting him, the mares that are coming to him, it's just gone from strength to strength.”

Kendargent | Zuzanna Lupa

From Galiway's first crop, he not only had a Group 1 winner on the Flat in Sealiway, but one over hurdles as well in Vauban. He's the rare higher-echelon stallion who is equally popular with Flat and National Hunt breeders.

“Sealiway really put Galiway on the map, but the fact that he's backing it up with other horses is now making people sit up and pay attention and take note and want to send him mares,” said Grassick.

His 2024 book is shaping up to be his biggest yet, and is expected to top the 169 mares he covered in 2021 and the 170 he serviced in 2022. Those 2022 foals will hit the track this year, and are from his strongest groups of mares to date.

“We've got some really, really nice mares, but also the support from the breeders,” said Grassick. “You know, we've got the Aga Khan, we've also got the Wertheimers sending mares, and we've outside mares coming from international breeders that have never used our stallions before-top-level breeders. Mr. Pariente is very keen on making him a success internationally. So he feels very strongly about encouraging more foreign breeders to come to France and use Galiway. And so now we have people coming and asking, `how many can I have?' And that's that's a nice problem to have.”

But a horse for the Classics could bring a whole other level of success.

G1 Criterium International Winner Sunway | Scoop-Dyga

“Sunway is a horse that we were always massively excited about,” said Grassick. “But I'll be honest, I never thought he was going to be a true two-year-old. Having seen him as a yearling, I always thought his best was to come as a three-year-old. I was in Doncaster when he was second in the Champagne Stakes last year and I actually messaged Mr. Pariente and said whatever this horse does here is just a bonus, because looking at him next to the other two-year-olds walking around the parade ring, he didn't look the finished article yet. Yet he came out and put up a really good performance that day and then went on and won the Criterium International, so I think this will really be his year.”

Now two-for-four, with that second in the Champagne S., Sunway is being pointed to either the April 7 G3 Prix la Force or the April 14 G3 Prix Fontainebleau at Longchamp. “David Menusier has never hidden what he thinks of this horse. He's called him his Classic hope since halfway through last year. He's just he's a really nice horse and he's just developing and getting stronger and stronger. Mr. Pariente always wanted this to be an international farm. So to then have them performing and racing on the track and having people pay attention and want to come and talk to us about our stallions is is really the end goal for him.”

Kendargent is a sire of sires himself, of course, with Goken (Fr) standing alongside him at Haras de Colleville. In 2023, he was the leading French-based sire of two-year-olds in France by earnings and by percentage of winners to runners (67%). He is the sire of 12 black type horses including Zorken (Fr), a dual Listed-winning two-year-old in 2023, as well as Go Athletico (Fr) and Fang (Fr), both Group 3 winners this year. And of course, he was also owned and bred by Pariente, and stands at Colleville for €15,000.

The fact that pinhookers are coming to France and buying Galiway's foals and then bringing them home to sell at the Irish and English sales is rewarding for the Colleville team, who found primarily French success with Kendargent.

“That's huge for a farm that was started only in 2007,” said Grassick, “and was started by a man who had a horse that he believed in. He bought him to be a racehorse, and he believed in him to be a stallion, and decided to stand him himself when no one else wanted to stand him. So now it's massive for us to have that demand and have people coming, especially to try and buy progeny of Galiway. It really cements what we've done, not just with Kendargent, but now continuing it on with Galiway. It wasn't just potluck. It wasn't a one-trick pony.”

From an initial fee of €3,000 in his first year at stud in 2016, Galiway now commands 10 times that amount.

“I think that the world is his oyster at the moment,” said Grassick. “He's had such success with the crops he's had to date, and it can only get better as he's got bigger crops, but also better quality crops to come. He's got more support than ever before from from really top breeders. For Mr. Pariente, the objective of being a top breeder is huge for him in its own right. But then to be so popular and in demand with all these top breeders, when you've only started your farm in the last 17 years or so, it's a big compliment that all of these breeders going back generations now want to come in and use your stallion. It's a really exciting time to be part of the team with Galiway.”

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Haras de Colleville Releases 2024 Stallion Fees

Haras de Colleville has announced the 2024 fees for its four stallions, with Galiway (GB), who was recently represented by new juvenile Group 1 winner Sunway (Fr), set to remain at €30,000 for the third consecutive season.

By mares covered in 2023, Galiway was second only to his son Sealiway (Fr), the full-brother to Sunway who stands at Haras de Beaumont. Galiway covered 153 mares and Sealiway's first book numbered 166.

Kendargent (Fr), who is the broodmare sire of Sunway and sire of the Group 1 winner Skalleti (Fr), has been trimmed to €15,000 from €17,000, while his son Goken (Fr) remains at €15,000.

Dual-purpose stallion Soft Light (Fr) (Authorized {Ire}) also remains unchanged at €5,000 for his third season at stud.

 

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Normandie Breeding: `It’s a Family Story’

Guillaume Vitse is probably best known as the man who helped to launch the Cindarella-story careers of the top French stallions Kendargent (Fr) and Galiway (Ire) when he worked at Guy Pariente's Haras de Colleville. Now, Vitse looks to write his own fairytale story alongside his wife Camille with their new project, Normandie Breeding, and it appears they are well on their way to doing so.

Normandie Breeding brought 16 horses to the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale from their operation in Beuvron-en-Auge about 30 minutes southeast of Deauville, after bringing 23 to the October sale and selling 18 of them.

Vitse left Haras de Colleville in 2018 after 11 very successful years there, where he not only oversaw the stallions' careers, but helped Pariente to build the farm. But in 2018, he and Camille decided they were of an age where they were either going to go out on their own, or miss the chance and spend their lives working for others.

“We thought it was time,” said Vitse, now 49. “Camille and I were very ready to have our own place. We liked having our own horses and doing business. We wanted to do it before we were 50 and we said if we don't do it this year, we'll never move. Sometimes, you have to move on and do something new. We started from scratch. No money, no farm, no clients. We had two little kids. And we said `let's go.'”

The first five or six months were tough going, he said. “We leased a farm,” he said, “but the farm was empty. We had no horses. It's a good experience when you set up your own place. You think it's going to be easy, that clients are going to come, but that's not the way it goes. You have to prove yourself anew. You have to show you have enough money to feed the horses, to do a good job. So it was pretty difficult, but we made it.”

Not only have they made it, but they have made it look easy, even if it weren't so.

“Before we started, we had two mares in association with trainers Phillippe Decouz and Yann Barberot. And we had two horses born that year that we kept, and they turned out to be very good horses–black-type performers. One of them, Go Athletico (Fr) (Goken {Fr}) went on to win a Group 3 at two and ran in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland in 2020, so that was amazing. And the other, Axdavali (Fr), went on to be Group 3-placed at two.

“We bought a mare for 4,000 guineas at Tattersalls called Miss Pimpernel (Ire), who wound up being the dam of Toimy Son (Fr), who was a listed winner at three. We sold him at the Arc Sale for €160,000 and now he's headed to David Menusier, so hopefully he'll be an even better horse. We bought Artifix (Ire), who is now the dam of Around Midnight (Fr), by Almanzor (Fr), trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, who is a listed winner at two and Group 3 runner-up, beaten a nose, at two. She's a Classic prospect for next year, so we have been very lucky. We have done a good job, but we have been very lucky that everything has gone well, and we just hope it keeps on going like this.”

The name Normandie Breeding is fitting for Vitse in more than one way. A native of the region, he was born in Argentan in 1973. His father Jean-Patrick managed Haras de la Verrerie, the farm of Elie de Brignac, the late president of l'Agence Francaise de Ventes du Pur Sang, the predecessor to Arqana. He lived there until he was six and his parents divorced. He moved to Paris with his mother but came back to Normandy to live with his father at 14. “School wasn't made for me,” he said with a smile. “I kept on working with horses while I finished school,” he said, “and I traveled around.”

For someone not yet 50, Vitse has accumulated a resume which has grounded him in every aspect of the business. He worked at Plantation Stud starting in 1991, working with Rafha (GB)–who would go on to produce Invincible Spirit (Ire) and Kodiac (GB)–when she was a maiden mare. He worked at sales and started riding out for a jumping yard, “just to know how to ride racehorses, to have another feeling, another connection with them. And the following two, three, four years I continued on like this, working the breeding season at Coolmore and Kildangen Stud during the yearling season.”

He spent a very formative two years in the United States at Lane's End where he worked with mares. “I was in Mare Barn 4, where we had some complicated mares to get in foal, some sick foals. It was a great learning experience. It's a very good farm to work at. They have the best stallions, and a very good team. Mr. Farish was in charge, and Bill was also there–such nice people and a very good place to work. I saw a lot of things. And if you want to be the best, you have to work with the best.”

After two years, he decided to return to France to get some experience running farms on his own.

“I was a young guy and went down to the south of France and ran Haras de la Clauzade, then Haras du Vieux Pont and then I went on to the Haras du Thenney, where I met my wife. And then I met Mr. Pariente. We started Colleville in 2007.”

Kendargent stood his first season at stud for €500 before going on to become one of the great French stallion success stories, and a successful broodmare sire. He was followed by Galiway, purchased from Wertheimer & Frere as a 3-year-old, and sent to stud with just a listed win and a Group 3 placing to his credit. He quickly become the Champion first-crop sire in France, and a Group 1 producer with Sealiway (Fr), who has just retired to stud not far away at Haras de Beaumont. Galiway stood for €30,000 in 2022 after covering more mares than any other stallion in France in 2021.

Jan. 1, the family, including their children, ages 11 and eight, are scheduled to move into their new farm. They have 23 hectares where they will keep only their own mares and those of their associates. “We're not going to board any outside mares,” he said. “We're going to keep the consignment, because we have an annex where we can keep fillies on one side and colts on another. So we can have 15-17 yearlings per sale.”

“We had a big draft in October, with 23 horses. But 15 is a good draft. We have some very good foals. We have regular clients, who come every year, we are expecting some very good horses to come along.” Vitse said that Sylvain Vidal and Mandalore Racing Stables were among those who have supported them loyally from the beginning.

Vitse said he believes in bringing home horses rather than selling them cheaply. “If a horse is going to sell cheaply, for 10, 15, 20,000 euros, we would rather keep her. If you sell at an average price, you end up with an average trainer and an average horse. You may as well get rid of the mare. If we have a cheap mare, it is because we believe in her.”

With Normandie Breeding, Vitse has come full circle. He is selling horses this week in the Elie de Brignac sales pavilion, named after his father's employer. He has worked with foals, yearlings and mares, and helped to launch two of France's best stallions. Now, he's just looking for the chance to do it for himself, and for his family. It has given him a satisfaction and a contentment that some people never achieve.

“We are very happy with where we are now,” he said. “It's family work. I am very in tune with my wife Camille; everything is 50-50. We see the horses together, we sell them together, we do the matings together. We see the stallions together. It's a family story, and nothing would be possible without my wife. Two of us together, we can do the job. I love my job, and I love my wife. Everything is perfect.”

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A Second French Title For Siyouni 

If having the winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe counted as a breakthrough moment for Siyouni (Fr) in 2020, his reputation climbed higher still as his son St Mark's Basilica (Fr) romped through his Classic year, winning the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, Prix du Jockey Club, Eclipse S. and Irish Champion S. on his way to becoming the top-rated horse in the world in 2021. Both he and Sottsass are now residents of the Coolmore stallion barn, where they will be given plenty of opportunities to attempt to establish Siyouni's reputation as a sire of sires. 

Until Sottsass came along, the Aga Khan Studs' Siyouni had been best represented by his daughters. Ervedya (Fr) became his first Group 1 and Classic winner, Laurens (Fr) advertised his abilities to a wider audience with her six Group 1 wins in Britain, Ireland and France, while Etoile (Fr) took it a step further with a Grade I strike in Canada, and Dream And Do (Fr) has more recently enhanced his Classic roll of honour. What is clear is that Siyouni is an extremely accomplished sire, and there is plenty to suggest that as his reputation has grown, along with his stud fee–from €7,000 in 2011 and for the next three seasons to a high of €140,000 since 2021–then so will his achievements on the back of bigger and higher-quality books.

At this relatively early stage of his career, Siyouni has been represented by just one stakes winner as a broodmare sire, courtesy of the Deauville Listed winner Hurricane Dream (Fr) (Hurricane Cat), and there is surely hope for the Christophe Ferland-trained Times Square (Fr) (Zarak) to build on her juvenile season which saw her finish second in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac. But in a year in which he was also represented by the Group winners Seachange (Fr), Wally (Ire), Sacred Life (Fr), Policy Of Truth (Fr), Acer Alley (GB), Mise En Scene (GB) and Who Knows (Fr), taking his lifetime tally to 113 stakes winners, it is safe to say that Siyouni is already paying a handsome tribute to his much-loved sire Pivotal (GB), who died in November. 

Another stallion sadly lost in 2021 was the German champion sire Adlerflug (Ger). Like Siyouni, he had secured his first championship in his native country in 2020, and he repeated that feat 12 months later, as well as finishing runner-up in France. In 2020, Adlerflug had the first and second in the G1 Deutsches Derby, In Swoop (Ire) and Torquator Tasso (Ger). The former went on to run second to Sottsass in the Arc that year, but his 2021 season was cut short in July after four runs, including a further Group 2 and Group 3 success. Torquator Tasso picked up the baton as it was announced that In Swoop would be retired to Coolmore's National Hunt division, and the final two races of the year for Gestut Auenquelle's colour-bearer and future stallion resulted in victories in the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. 

Adlerflug had just 29 runners in France, resulting in 12 winners of 22 races, but Torquator Tasso's prize-money haul from Europe's richest race was enough to secure his sire the runner-up spot in the stallion table.

During a decade in French breeding when some classy stallions have emanated from some less-than-obvious sources, Wootton Bassett (GB) has been one of the great success stories. Chapter two of his stud career is currently being written in Ireland at Coolmore, where he has stood since last year following nine seasons at Haras d'Etreham. He too has had an enormous upturn in fee, from a starting price of €6,000, to a low of €4,000 in 2014 and his current high of €150,000. That of course has been fanned by the flames of success, and Wootton Bassett enjoyed another good year, with Prix Marcel Boussac winner Zellie (Fr) and Incarville (Fr) two new Group 1 winners, taking his tally to five, while Royal Patronage (Fr), Atomic Jones (Fr), Ilaraab (Ire) and Wootton Asset (Fr) were new Group/Graded winners outside France. 

Wootton Bassett has 44 stakes winners to his name from eight crops of racing age, and it is worth remembering that none of his first four crops of foals exceeded 50, with his smallest, in 2014, numbering just 18. In his first season at Coolmore he covered 244 mares. Expect bigger and better things to come. 

With 59 winners in France, and Skalleti having provided a first Group 1 success, Haras de Colleville's Kendargent (Fr) was fourth in the French sires' table for 2021. 

Skalleti's full-brother Skazino (Fr) upheld the family honour with three Group wins, including the G2 Prix Kergorlay, while the Teruya Yoshida homebred Tokyo Gold (Fr) gave Kendargent a Classic victory in the G2 Derby Italiano for the French-based, Japanese-born trainer Satoshi Kobayashi. 

It is also worth keeping an eye on Kendargent's growing profile as a broodmare sire, with the G1 Champion S. winner Sealiway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) being his leading representative in this regard, along with the G1 Deutsches Derby winner Sisfahan (Fr) (Isfahan {Ger}).

The winner of the G1 Grand Prix de Paris and third in the Arc, Hurricane Lane (Ire) helped to propel Britain and Ireland's champion sire Frankel (GB) into fifth place in the French table, just ahead of Sumbe's Le Havre (Ire). The latter's daughter Wonderful Tonight (Fr) bowed out in August before she was able to meet her end-of-year appointment in the Arc, but she did add a further two Group 2 wins to her tally of the previous year, winning at Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood. 

These of course did not count towards Le Havre's tally in France, but Glycon (Fr) took the G2 Prix de Deauville and Waliyak won the G3 Prix Bertrand de Tarragon. The Sir Michael Stoute-trained Ville De Grace (GB) is a filly to keep an eye in in 2022 following her win in the G3 Pride S. at Newmarket in the autumn.

Outside the leading contenders, it is also worth noting the five stakes winners for Intello (Ger) in France in 2021. He remains at Haras du Quesnay in 2022, having served two years at a time when alternating between Cheveley Park Stud and Quesnay for the first eight seasons of his stud career, and his fee for this year has been dropped to €8,000, down from a high of £/€25,000. Bubble Smart (GB), Dawn Intello (Fr) and Adhamo (Ire) were all Group 3 winners for him in France, while Waldbiene (Fr) won Germany's G2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis.

Leading German Sires

The posthumous success of Adlerflug during the 2021 season has already been referenced above and his untimely death in April after covering a mare at the stud where he was born, Gestut Schlenderhan, will continue to be lamented in Germany and beyond. The son of In The Wings is champion for the second year running, with his 28 winners led by Torquator Tasso, whose major success at home came in the Grosser Preis von Baden. Outside Germany, Adlerflug's leading runners in 2021 were In Swoop and the G2 King Edward VII S. winner Alenquer (Fr).

The first crop of Adlerflug's fellow German Derby winner Isfahan (Ger) were only three in 2021, but the victory in that same Classic of his son Sisfahan (Fr) helped to put the Gestut Ohlerweiherhof resident in second place in the German sires' table. 

Isfahan was also represented by the G1 Preis der Diana (German Oaks) runner-up Isfahani (Ger), who sadly died in September. 

Sisfahan, who was runner-up to Torquator Tasso in the Grosser Preis von Baden, is reported to be heading to the Saudi Cup meeting in February for Germany's champion trainer Henk Grewe.

Soldier Hollow (GB) has just turned 22 and has previously been champion sire in Germany on three occasions. This time around he had to settle for third, but he sired the most winners (43) and highest number of stakes winners (nine). The diminutive son of In The Wings (GB) remains a huge credit to Gestut Auenquelle and to his owner Helmut Von Finck. 

Another sad loss to the German stallion ranks and to Gestut Etzean in 2021 was Isfahan's sire Lord Of England (Ger). The 18-year-old was represented by another Classic winner in the last year of his life in the Preis der Diana winner Palmas (Ger). 

Etzean has also been home for the last four years to the veteran former multiple champion sire Areion (Ger). The son of Big Shuffle turns 27 this year and had the valuable BBAG auction race winner Mister Applebee (Ger) among his leading performers of last year.

The Etzean stallions featured prominently in the sires' championship, with Amaron (GB), a son of Shamardal whose eldest runners were four in 2021, finishing sixth in the table. He will be joined at stud in 2022 by the Group 1 winner Japan (GB), who becomes the first son of Galileo (Ire) to stand in Germany.

A German sire of whom we could hear more this year is Guiliani (Ger), a son of Tertullian out of a full-sister to Getaway (Ger). Like Isfahan he had his first 3-year-old runners in 2021 and while Guiliani is yet to make a major impression, a notable member of his second crop is the Group 3 winner Tunnes (Ger), a half-brother to Torquator Tasso who is currently favourite for the Deutsches Derby. 

Arcano Shines In Italy 

Arcano (Ire) left Derrinstown Stud for Italy in 2016 and having spent the intervening years at Allevamento di Besnate, just north of Milan, he is now champion sire in his adopted country for the first time. His 26 winners included the G2 Oaks d'Italia heroine Eulaila (Ity), and she is out of a mare by the  GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Pounced, who has stood at the same stud for his entire career and is also now represented in the stallion ranks by his Group 2-winning son Full Drago (Ity), who had his first juvenile runners this year. 

Second in the table was another former Allevamento di Besnate resident and Shadwell runner, Mujahid. Arcano has recently been joined at the stud by two more Shadwell-owned stallions, Mukhadram (GB) and Adaay (Ire).

The G1 July Cup winner Sakhee's Secret (GB) died in November at the age of 17. Having moved to Italy's Allevamento Si Fra in 2015, he was champion sire in 2019 and 2020, and finished fourth in the table in 2021, just behind Kendargent, who was represented by the Italian Derby winner Tokyo Gold. 

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